This study I think adds to the huge pile of evidence that housing costs are a major bottleneck for fertility. When people get houses, they have more babies. So solving housing is hugely important.

But this paper emphatically tells us nothing about the actual magnitude, scale, or even sign of effect of something like “building more housing to make market rate housing cheaper.” It doesn’t even tell us the effect of something like “giving families a per-child housing subsidy.” All it tells us is “housing is a bottleneck.”

And that’s a very useful finding! But folks, this ain’t no silver bullet